GRAND RAPIDS, MI – When the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council's legislative committee considered last month whether to recommend the statewide ballot Proposal 1, support from the panel's white members was unanimous.

But Elias Lumpkins, an African-American city commissioner from Grand Rapids' Third Ward, sees "something wrong” with a state law that permits an emergency manager to usurp the authority of elected leaders in cities and school districts deemed in financial distress. He and Kentwood Mayor Richard Clanton, who's also black, voted in the minority.

“In most of the places where a financial manager has been installed, they’re basically African-American cities,” Lumpkins said. “We’ve got to acknowledge that race is a major factor.

“I’m confident that we’re going to avoid an emergency financial manager, I know, in the city of Grand Rapids as well as Grand Rapids Public Schools, but that doesn’t make (the law) right. You do have elected officials and they were elected by their constituents to represent their viewpoints. There’s something wrong with the model that we’ve set up.”

The committee voted 13-2 to recommend support for Proposal 1. Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell supports the emergency manager law, but Lumpkins said feelings are mixed in the city’s Third Ward, where both elected commissioners are black.

The committee voted 15-0 to recommend a “no” vote on proposal 5 and 6, constitutional amendments related to taxes and bridges, respectively. The committee did not make recommendations on the other three statewide proposals slated for the November ballot.